Happy Endings
by Sociopath454893
Summary: High School AU: Dean never grew up with the family business, or a brother. That all changes when the truth is revealed and he is left to clean up his dead father's mess. He stumbles into the path of his girlfriend's cousin, Castiel, but will they be able to form a relationship in amidst the waging war?
1. Prologue

**Happy Endings**

* * *

**Lawrence, Kansas, 16 years ago.**

_Mary and John sat curled up on the couch watching Baseball (much to her disapproval), __whilst Dean slept peacefully in his father's arms. John had been trying desperately not to move in fear of awaking his son and that had caused a rather painful ache in his arms. He twitched uncomfortably and tried to shift his son's body weight slightly. Seeing his awkward discomfort, Mary sighed and chuckled to herself; offering to take Dean._

_"I'm just going to put Dean to bed, I'll be back down in a couple of minutes." Mary said as she gathered her son in her arms and started to head for the stairs._

_"Yeah, sure." He smiled as his wife carefully climbed each step, making sure not to wake Dean. You'd have thought they were creating a fuss over making sure he stayed asleep, but he was one hell of a moody baby whenever he got rudely awoken. John waited until she had disappeared upstairs before turning his attention back to the game on TV. It was not long before he was hearing the familiar lullaby coming from Dean's room._

* * *

_Dean lay motionless with every breath flowing silently from his lungs and out into the warm air surrounding him. His mother's thumb rested gently on his cheek as 'Hey Jude' rang out across the room. That was the song she had always sang to her son at night, ever since the first night back from the hospital. It was her favourite Beatles song and nothing else had ever seemed to be right. She had tried a few times to sing normal nursery rhymes but Dean would just wriggle and cry until she gave in._

___Mary sat watching her son in wonder, what exactly went through his mind? She had always wanted to know. Movement downstairs broke her trail of thought and she concentrated on the pitter-patter of John's footsteps. She smiled; it wasn't exactly what you would call 'pitter-patter'._

_Dean's dreams took him far and wide; although he was still young and his imagination- simple, his mind reached and searched for every piece of information it had gathered so far. Most of this was solely based around his parents. Images of his mother's laugh and his father's little wink swirled before him. Every now and then his lips would curl into an innocent smile which always made his mother beam._

_She waited quietly so that she would be able to hear the small thud of John's feet as he climbed the stairs. But the steps never came. There was an agonising silence before Mary heard another rustling sound- this time a little louder. She frowned, he better not be at the pie again. She took one last look at Dean and went to investigate. As she crossed the landing and stepped towards the top of the stairs, she heard John's voice. She couldn't tell what he was saying as he was whispering._

_Furrowing her brow in confusion she sped up her pace as she reached the bottom. "John." Her steps were cautious now, nervously awaiting his voice in reply. When nothing came, Mary stepped around the corner and into the kitchen just in time to see John's face fade. She took a faltered breath and fell to her knees._


	2. Lost

_**A/N: This is my first try at writing a High School AU so I hope you like it. This chapter turned out quite short and I changed it a lot since I first posted it. It was really hard to write because I'm basically setting the plot up. Please feel free to comment any good points or criticisms.  
**_

* * *

**Lawrence, Kansas, 14 years ago.**

_Dean fidgeted excitedly on his mother's lap as she read from the large book in her hands. Although most of the front cover had been scribbled over messily; you could just make out the words 'Jungle Book' in big, red letters and an animated drawing of Mowgli and Baloo. Judging by the way Mary was reading- and by the way she would furrow her brow- it was clear that the rest of the book was similar._

_Every minute or so, Dean would let out a weird gurgling shriek and jump five feet in the air before landing with a THUD! on Mary's lap again._

_You could tell by watching these strange events unfold that he liked the story. In fact, this was his favourite story of all. He wished that he was raised by the wolves, so that he could become as cool and strong as Mowgli. Then if anything ever tried to hurt his mommy, he could swoop in and save the day. Just like a true hero._

_Mary continued to read the long winded story- that she almost knew by heart now- until the very last page when Dean let out a disappointed sigh and said "Again, again!" Truthfully, she didn't mind at all. Seeing her son like this was the one thing that made her truly complete._

_Nevertheless, it seemed like he was always growing that little bit older, forever slipping through her fingers. Soon he would be old enough to ask questions that she didn't want him to ever know the answers to. Sometimes she wished she could just freeze the picture, and save it from the funny trace of time. She smiled. It was a heartbroken smile, because things like that don't happen. There is no going back. So what was she supposed to do? She was the definition of lost._

* * *

_**The Middle of Nowhere, Present Day.**_

"We're lost, aren't we?" Anna said dryly. Her feet were starting to hurt and the 'stop moaning, it'll be fun' line was way past tedious. She whipped her head round to face Dean and forced a smile; his hand was now dangerously close to her ass and he knew it.

"Sir, can't we just find somewhere to pitch up our tents. Pretty sure it's gonna get dark soon." Gabriel added from the very back of the group. He grimaced as he spotted Dean's hand and tried to focus on anything other than his sister and her boyfriend.

Rufus, however, wasn't the moaning type. He trudged along blissfully looking out at the never-ending line of trees and shrubbery. He knew the outdoors well and Gabe was right- it was going to get dark soon. His guess, they had about an hour before sundown to find a place to camp. He stopped at the nearest clearing and shouted to the rest of the group, "This'll have to do for now, Sir. Ground's flat enough." He began to get out the required equipment when he was interrupted by Mr Lang.

"Excuse me; _I _will decide when and where we shall camp for the night. I don't expect to take orders from a pupil." He turned his nose up and mumbled, "Come along class." It took him till 20 yards of walking later to realise that the class wasn't following him at all. Instead, most of them were pitching their tents next to Rufus and the rest were collecting firewood from further afield.

He turned slowly on his heels and stomped towards the clearing.

"Can you tell me exactly why you didn't follow my instructions?" When no one answered his question he admitted defeat and slumped off his heavy backpack, throwing onto the dusty ground in front of him. Halfway through hauling out his bedding, Mr Lang looked up, counting the heads around him before painting a confused yet knowing expression on his face. "Where are Dean and Anna?"

* * *

Dean desperately reached for anything he could grab hold of as his tongue fought its own battle in Anna's mouth. He groaned as she tugged forcefully at his hair and slipped her cold hand underneath the hem of his shirt. He pressed her against the tree before breaking the kiss and taking a well-needed breath.

Anna was the first to talk, "Don't you think we should be getting back. He'd have noticed by now, right?" She wasn't normally the sort of girl to worry about a stupid teacher or even take a seconds notice but truthfully Dean's advance had shocked her. Since he found out about his dad, he had been on edge a lot. The fire in his eyes had seemed to disappear and he had never once answered her concerns. Another thing was that he was a lot more… Full on. He didn't seem to care about how far she wanted to go or what she wanted to do. At first, she thought it was just the initial shock of bad news. But now, she had no clue.

Nobody seemed to know anything about Dean Winchester anymore. He had always been 'such a nice boy'- as her mother put it. He was loyal more than anything. Once you were friends with Dean Winchester there was no going back.

It all changed when his mother had came clean on what happened to his father. Story goes that she never saw the killer (if there even was one); she just walked downstairs to find him dying on the floor. No cause of death was found. No stab wound, bullet hole- not even a sign of illness or sudden organ failure. Just a dead man. A fire then started ablaze up in Dean's room and she barely made it out alive with her son firmly in her arms. The cause of the fire was never found either. It was all one, big, wrapped up mystery.

But that's not what she told her son.

Anna was forbidden from talking about what really happened- but she never understood why. She knew that one day this would all come to backfire on Mary. But she knew that all his mother had was good intentions. She just wanted to protect her son from the harsh reality of life- and who can blame her? So Mary told her son a tale of heroism, where John had come to pass at the hands of a fire whilst trying to save a local family at the time. Dean had never met the family and his friends were always suspicious when talking about it but he still had faith in his mom. Faith that she would tell him the truth and trust him for the man he was.

Unfortunately, his trust had been broken when she revealed what really happened after so many years. And it seemed that his whole personality had altered due to this. He no longer put his faith in anybody anymore. Not even his oldest and dearest friends. She hated it. She hated the fact that his mother had lied. She hated the fact that it had changed him so much.

"Are you joking? Why should I listen to anything that son of a bitch has to say. And anyway, who cares?"

"I do, Dean" She sighed and pushed him away, "We need to get our tents up before sun set so if you want to be pitching a tent in the dark then by all means, stay here." She had clearly gotten her point across as Dean just shrugged and followed closely behind her.

By the time the got back to the group, Dean was surprised to find all the tents in a neat circle and most of the class huddling round the burning fire. A rush of embarrassment hit him as eight heads stared up at him in disgust. He quickly recovered himself and went to the large space before emptying out the contents of his backpack.

It took longer than expected to put up his tent. Being a momma's boy, he didn't really go outdoors. He had never been on a fishing trip, or gone camping under the stars. Mary had tried to sort out things like this for Dean, but it didn't interest him one bit. Not until he got a little older. When he saw his mates leaving on hunting trips with their dad's and wanting guns or fishing rods for Christmas; it just made him think- what if his dad was still alive? Wouldn't it be cool if he knew how to handle a sawn-off and catch a rabbit in a trap? He knew his dad would be amazing at those things.

Once he'd finally managed to haul up his tent and peg it in (with a little help from Anna and some awkward silences), he snuggled up inside his sleeping bag and began to drift into sleep. At first his thoughts were filled with that little lullaby his mother always sang, but after he consciously shook the song away, all he was left with was darkness.

Soon enough, the lack of brain activity got to him and he was starting to get bored of counting sheep. Instead he created a fantasy in his head, based on the porn he had seen recently called 'Busty Asian Beauties'. And since it was on the topic, he may as well jerk off while he could remember the images.

It only took him a few minutes to reach release and he tried to be a silent as possible. It could be quite awkward if Mr Lang overheard what he was doing.

He lay relaxed and satisfied until sleep pulled him in.

_Dean lay still as the darkness encased the world around him. Images of his mother haunted his vision before fading away into the ever growing black background. He reached out, trying to haul the images back- but nothing seemed to work._ _His hands grasped the thick air over and over again, secretly praying to grasp something tangible. The breaths he was taking quickened until his heart rate was urges to follow; it thudded so clearly in his chest that he could feel each beat louder than he could hear his own thoughts. And then it stopped. He stood, bewildered, in his living room._

His stomach turned over and he sat bolt upright, looking out at the nylon walls of the tent. Quicker than you could ask if he was okay, he had wriggled out of his sleeping bag and was proceeding to throw on clothes and shoes.

Then he broke. Tears spilled down his cheeks and onto the makeshift bedding. A knot formed in his stomach and his breaths became hitched as he whispered so quietly that not even a mouse could hear, "Mom."


	3. Bright-Eyed Stranger

_**A/N: Thank-you to anyone who is still reading. It took ages to write this and it has been a while. Spoilers: We get to see Castiel in this chapter!**_

* * *

Dean's bones shivered beneath his skin. It was so cold. He forced his eyes to open slightly and looked down to find the sleeping bag strewn at the other end of the tent. His breath clouded in front of him as he reached helplessly for his phone- four thirty a.m. Dean let out a trembled groan and wiped the dried saliva from his cheek, slowly piecing together what he could remember and why he was sitting freezing to death out of his bedding. Pulling the sleeping bag around him his eyes drifted once more before he noticed that there was a damp patch by where his eyes had been. Had he been crying? He never cried. Dean Winchester did not _cry_. But the evidence said otherwise and his although his memory of waking up was blurred, he did remember having a nightmare.

It had been so vivid…

_ Dean's heart raced as he stepped into the lounge at his house. It was the same. Same old, tattered chair by the window and the guitar that no-one ever seemed to use anymore. His Mom had once been great at playing that old thing. And if he asked nicely, she would creep downstairs and steal it from its place by the fire before returning to his room to play his favourite lullaby. He could still hear the echoing twang of each string that twirled through his mind. But it had been years since she had sang to him._

_Turning towards the kitchen his heart-rate danced once more as there stood his Mother; clad in a long, white nightgown that he hadn't seen her wear before. She didn't smile like she normally would either- just stood there, motionless._

_ Dean took an unsure step towards her only to see her take one step back. "Mom. You okay?" He stepped forward again only to experience the same thing happen. "Mom?" The sadness in his voice rang out through his tone as his eyes stared at her emotionless expression._

_He took another step, and another, and another until he was running after her; the kitchen stretching out far and wide like an endless corridor. He kept running- his features screwed up into a determined pout until finally the hollow figure of his mother etched closer and closer with every step. He slowed to walk the final few yards but just as he reached her lifeless body the world around him began to spin fiercely. And she smiled._

_ He took the final step to catch her as she fell to the floor encased with fire. He had no regard for himself as he felt the burning rip into his skin. "Help! Somebody please…" Holding her close he closed his eyes tight to stop the incessant spinning as he felt his final breath burn inside of him._

And that was the way he woke. Sweat dripping from his forehead, searching desperately for his clothes.

He had obviously fallen back into his slumber that way, sobbing like a baby and completely uncovered. He was so glad it was over; that it was just a stupid nightmare.

* * *

The next day, Mr Lang woke the students up early to start out on their long walk up into the hills for their rock climbing activity. Most of the camp was dressed and ready to leave unusually quickly. That just left Dean- still struggling to move at all from the awkward comfort of the air bed.

"Mr Winchester, now I suggest you get the hell out of that tent, changed and ready before I leave you behind." The teacher hit the outside of Dean's tent furiously before pushing his glasses up and puffing his chest out. Marching round to the door, he unzipped it and grabbed Dean's legs, dragging him feet first onto the wet mud. "You have ten minutes." The kids mumbled and pointed and Dean could have sworn that Anna was doubled over with laughter. Mr Lang puffed up his chest even more and strutted off to have breakfast, leaving Dean astounded, scowling at the back of his head.

He mumbled something offensive as he climbed back into his tent to get changed.

It took Dean at least fifteen minutes to get ready and with some tedious nagging from Mr Lang, just five to get his tent packed up. He immediately took up his place next to Anna near the back of the group.

"Hey, don't be so down about today. Its gonna be fun, trust me. All we've gotta do is get through the rock climbing activity." Anna said, smiling excitedly at Dean.

Dean looked unimpressed and didn't believe Anna one bit. But he decided to go along with it. "Yeah, how come?"

"Well after that, we don't have to camp for the night. Sir said it would be good for us to get a proper shower and good food, so he organised for us to go stay at a B&B not far from here. Thank Gabe, he suggested it." She peered backwards at her brother who strolled along behind them, giving her a wink and a smile as she said it.

"As much as I accept any thanks, you know our Uncle owns that place anyway."

"Your Uncle? I thought your Dad baled when you were young?" Dean questioned, realising the hole in his thought trail just a little too late.

"He's my Mother's sibling, you idiot." Gabriel shook his head and chuckled at Dean's embarrassed expression.

They had only gotten a few yards of silence when Anna perked up again, "You think we'll see Castiel? I mean, after... You know, is he still there?" Dean looked up at the surrounding trees; generally when missing information was involved, it was best not to probe.

"Far as I know. But he never could walk away, that kid. Even..." Gabriel thought for a second, giving a knowing look to his sister, "Yeah."

* * *

The rock climbing went better than Dean had expected and apart from a few scratches- he was fairly unscathed. He had never really had the chance to experience the sort of excitement and thrill that comes from activities like that and he wasn't quite sure whether he liked it or not. He had never really been a fan of heights, but today had proven that he could do things that he had never even dreamt about doing.

The adrenaline soon wore out and the journey to the B&B seem to grow more and more boring by the second. All Dean could think about was sleep and food. Not like that was any different from his normal thoughts; though they generally included porn, girls and sex. Right now he was too tired to think about that.

By the time the mini-bus had pulled up at the guest house, snoring could be heard coming from Dean's seat. He wasn't sitting next to anybody- he hated having to smile and nod whilst they rambled about their life then proceeded to play 'I spy'. And plus, he wasn't in the mood.

He was awoken by Rufus who 'accidently' whacked him round the head with his bags on the way down the aisle. "Sorry" He mumbled tiredly.

"Yeah, whatever man." Dean replied, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and throwing his arms up to stretch- letting out a half yawn-half groan in the process. Slumping back into the seat he pondered on all the offensive things he could have said. He hated been rudely awoken.

Hauling himself inside with his bags, Dean paid no attention to the two strangers who welcomed him on the way in and pointed to where the rooms were. Well, maybe a little attention- he had always been quite nosy. The smaller one had black hair and bright eyes (he didn't catch the colour); but the taller one was the most interesting. His knuckles were beaten and messy but he was dressed smartly with his hair slick back. They looked a lot alike- probably father and son- Dean thought.

He was a little anxious to fall asleep that night, drifting in and out of conciousness for the first few hours. He didn't want to risk dreaming. This, of course, led to a crap nights sleep and Dean being generally moody at breakfast.

After getting changed he lumbered downstairs and into the dining room, failing to be polite to a single person on the way. He sat down sluggishly on a table as far away from anyone as possible and rested his head into his hands. There had been no nightmares, but unfortunately that came with a cost- he couldn't work out whether it was worth it or not. He had just decided that it probably was worth it when his breakfast arrived. The waiter was the bright eyed stranger that Dean had seen the previous night; looking up he noticed his eyes were blue. He didn't know why he noticed that- should he have?

"You look lonely. What's up?" He put the plate on the table and smiled at Dean, tilting his head slightly to the right.

Dean finally stopped staring when he realised that he should answer the guy, "Just tired. Bad night's sleep." The stranger nodded and looked down at his shoes like he had taken it personally before walking off to attend to another table. "Weirdo."


	4. Independence

Castiel sat playing with his breakfast, twisting the bacon around his fork and pushing it away to the other side of his plate. He could hear his father shouting at some poor maid down the corridor as he finally shovelled a forkful of scrambled egg into his mouth. He pondered on the amount of times he had tried to stop his father from yelling at the staff; it was a wonder most of them still worked here. If he had a chance to be free from this place and everything associated with it, he'd take it without blinking. But even when he turned eighteen, he knew that his father would turn round and throw some giant responsibility on his shoulders. He wanted Castiel to take over the B&B- _make it a new family tradition._ But what if he didn't want to? He was afraid; afraid of what his father might say when Cas told him that he didn't really want to be stuck in this shithole for the rest of his life. _Maybe he'd word it better- _he thought, chuckling to himself.

The shouting had stopped but Cas still felt bad for not going to help the maid. Undoubtedly, that would have caused an even bigger domestic and he wanted to keep up appearances in front of his cousins. They were staying another night after Gabriel had taken one for the team and complained of feeling ill.

Castiel got up to scrape the contents of his plate into the bin and get ready for school. Trudging out into the corridor he looked ahead to where Anna was pulling the green-eyed stranger from breakfast into her room suspiciously, hovering her finger over his lips. Cas shook his head and walked past the room quickly before taking a sharp left to where the private quarters of the guest house was. The decoration wasn't any different to the rest of the place- magnolia walls with a patterned, red strip of wallpaper that ran through the centre. He hated the décor almost as much as he hated the B&B itself.

* * *

School was as boring as he had expected. All he could think about was how much fun Anna and Gabe must be having whilst he was shoved into a nicely advertised cage, about a million miles in the opposite direction of 'fun'. When he complained about the place his father would always say that he was ungrateful; _it was a good school that turned out good grades. All he wanted to do was give Castiel the best opportunity in life. _He knew that it was bullshit. All his father wanted to do was get Cas away from him for as long as possible. That's why he had the school input tutors on Saturdays and the reason he sent him away to camps in the holidays.

After Geography, the bell rang for the end of the day and sighs of relief could be heard engulfing the room. Cas placed his things neatly into his bag and smiled at the teacher on his way out. Miss Masters was the only teacher he actually liked and she was the sort of teacher that you only ever get once in your school career. She also made him laugh when no-one else could. But not even she could take away the pain he felt inside; the pain of the future that seemed to come towards him so fast that he had no time to think about it. So whenever somebody asked him, "What do you wanna be, Cas?" He couldn't answer. No matter how much he tried, the future just came up blank. A white screen that never provided him with any answers. He wanted to it to stop, he wanted to be able to look that person in the eye and say, "Yes, I know exactly what I want to be." But the words never came. He would just stare at them sadly and reply, "I don't know yet." or, "I haven't decided."

As he approached the house he frowned, seeing Gabe, Anna, Dean and Bobby burst through the door with cunning smiles spread across their faces. He chuckled to himself and walked past them, but before he could cross the threshold he felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull him backwards. "Hey, Cas, right?" He spun to reveal Anna's boyfriend- who was a lot taller than he first thought.

"Well actually it's Castiel. But yeah, I guess." He replied half-heartedly as Dean wrapped his arm around him playfully.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Well by the look on your face, you could use some fun. Why don't you come with us?" He glanced at the hesitant expression plastered on Cas' face and sighed. "Just go get changed and come with us. Be quick." He pushed the Castiel's shoulder towards the door and turned back to the group.

"Dean, you can hardly stand us lot at the minute, what's with the sudden interest in my cousin?" Anna chirped up, looking at Dean suspiciously.

"Well I figured he looked like the kinda kid who gets bullied at school for being weird and you know how I like to have peculiar friends."

"Ha-ha Dean, oh my god your the pinnacle of all humour!" Bobby said, not sounding amused at all, "Idjit."

It was a ten minute wait before Castiel finally came clambering down the stairs, pushing past his dad on the way. "Hey, where do you think you're going." He said, glaring at his son.

"Going out with some friends."

His dad looked at him questioningly before replying, "You have _friends_."

"Yes dad, now please can I go?" Cas looked at his dad with puppy dog eyes and held his hands together like he was a beggar on a street corner.

"Go, before I change my mind." He was going to add 'what about your homework' but his son had already made for the front door. He sighed, shaking his head and walked off down the hall, secretly hoping that Castiel wouldn't get into _too_ much trouble. It certainly didn't seem like his son to be 'going out with friends', _maybe he's after 'independence'? _He chuckled, Cas? Independent?

* * *

"Come on, Castiel! I can't believe you never told us that there was a hot springs here." Anna threw her top onto the floor next to her and cannonballed into the water, splashing Castiel in the process.

"I never told you because I knew you'd do something stupid. For example cannonballing into it! We're not even supposed to be here!" Cas said, glancing at Dean who had already stripped down to his boxers and had jumped in to join Anna. Gabriel was still standing by the side, trying desperately to get his socks off; Bobby was paying no attention to the group and was sunbathing about 10 yards away from the commotion.

"Cas, you gonna stand there looking like a startled rabbit or are you gonna join-" Before Dean could finish, Anna grabbed hold of the back of his head and forced it into the water.

"You talk to much." Anna said smiling; she looked up at Castiel- who was still clad in his jeans and t-shirt. "You've got to remove that stick from up your ass, mate." It suddenly dawned on her that she hadn't released Dean yet and she finally let go of his head to allow him to come gasping up to the surface.

"Bitch." He remarked as he sat wheezing at the edge of the water. "Right, that's it. Gabe, get his legs." Gabriel paused his stripping and pounced on Castiel's puzzled, frail body.

"One, two, three!" They both chanted as they swung Cas, fully clothed, into the springs.

After some squirming and splashing Castiel eventually calmed down and pulled off his soaking wet jeans before joining in with the group again. They spent around 2 hours in the water and only retreated to the safety of the banks when Anna said that she felt like a raisin; and by the time they had dried out it was way past nightfall and the moon sat proudly in the starry sky. Bobby had managed to steal a bottle of whiskey from the store down the road and all wasted, they sprawled out on the grass to rest.

"Look, that one's Cassiopeia and Orion and the Plough." Castiel rambled on as he gazed at the night sky.

"Cas, you annoying son of a bitch, shut the fuck up." Dean laughed at himself and turned to face the blue-eyed boy. He still couldn't believe that he disregarded him as 'un-interesting' when he had first arrived. Cas was far from that. The boy could ramble on, yeah, but there was so much compassion behind his eyes, so much... He couldn't even find the right word to explain it. All he knew was that the guy was a million miles from un-interesting. So he didn't mind when Cas proceeded to talk, he just listened as he felt Anna's head lull gently into his shoulder.

"Shouldn't we be getting home?" Cas slurred, popping his head up from the grass.

"Soon." Dean mumbled, smiling at the sky.


	5. Memories and New Beginnings

Everyone had left by three the next afternoon and there was an awkward silence that walked the halls. Castiel had yet to step foot from his bedroom after arriving home wasted the previous night. Gabriel had tried to take the blame but that didn't stop a domestic from breaking out between the elder Novak and his son; ultimately resulting in the worst grounding Castiel had ever received. Let's just say that his Father was extremely over-protective.

He tried to focus the words on the page but his mind kept flicking back to last night. He had forgotten what it felt like to let go and have fun.

He took a deep breath, from now on he would just completely forget that the unexpected visitors ever came. He'd forget the fact that he had never felt so at home. He'd forget everything.

Castiel heard a knock at the door and his heart jumped; the door swung wide to reveal his Dad, looking oddly sympathetic, but it didn't interest Castiel in the slightest.

"If you are here to give me a lecture, spare it. I know what I did and I know that you are angry. Thank-you, you may turn and leave now. I have homework to do." He tried to sound sarcastic and sassy like the characters in the books he had read, but it just managed to come out rude and obnoxious instead.

"I don't think that's any way to be talking to me at the moment. And I'm not here to 'lecture' you; I'm here to tell you something important. Something I hope you'll understand." Castiel didn't justify him with a signal to continue, so he carried on regardless. "The B&B isn't doing too well at the moment, even after the last customers. So I'm thinking about maybe quitting while we're ahead. What d'ya say, hey Cassy, me and you will pick up sticks and head for the city?" The hope in his eyes shone through and Castiel was stumped for words. Maybe he should move; start a new life. Maybe things will be different this time around. No more arguments, no more bruises. But the city? How could he just up and leave the only place he'd ever really known. A place he had tried to see as a home.

"Of course I will, Dad." Castiel smiled sincerely and wrapped his arms around his Father as tight as he possibly could. He wasn't going to think about the bad right now. He would have plenty of time to dwell on that. But his Father, for the first time ever, had shown some compassion and he wasn't going to turn that down.

* * *

Dean traipsed through the door with bags in tow and struggled against the wave of tiredness that swept over him. He had felt like a narcoleptic sloth recently.

Shrugging off his luggage he swept his vision over the darkened room; his Mom must be asleep. He was kind of bummed out that she was; he had said that she shouldn't wait up- but now, all he wanted was to see her smile, tell her that he was okay. Tell her that he was home.

**Lawrence, Kansas. 20 years ago.**

_Mary beamed with a certain joy that even angels would be jealous of. She could hear the familiar sound of wheels being dragged up the cobbled driveway and that smile grew even brighter. He was home, safe and sound._

_Before her loved one could even step foot inside the door her arms were firmly clasped around his neck and she began to lay innocent kisses along his cheek bone. "John."_

_"Hey, honey I'm home." He whispered sarcastically, chuckling quietly at her unexpected enthusiasm. "You're acting like you haven't seen me in a year! Are you okay?"_

_"Why wouldn't I be? I just missed you, is that a crime?"_

_"No, of course not, I missed you too. And I love you but, can I smell pie?" He unravelled Mary's limbs from his body and practically danced towards the kitchen while her judging eyes rolled. Anyone would have thought that he loved food more than he loved her- in fact, take that back, he probably did. But she didn't mind, who can blame him for loving her heavenly cooking skills?_

_"I'm glad your home. I've missed you."_

* * *

**Lawrence, Kansas. Present Day.**

Dean woke up that next morning to the very smell that he had wished for since the day he had left. He surfed what was left of his clean clothes but soon gave up and threw on his old Guns & Roses t-shirt, because it was the only one he could find that didn't smell damp and sweaty. Hopping down the hallway he hitched up his jeans and ran for the stairs like he used to on Christmas Day. The excitement may have shifted to another occasion- one involving lots of pie- but it was still there. The kind of ecstatic feeling that only really happens a few times in adult life, but encloses every waking moment as a child.

He wasn't going to think about the rift between him and his mother, not till later. He was dreading the part where they had to talk about it. But he needed to know everything, every little detail she had never told him. Although finding out had ruined the image of his father, it didn't hurt as much as the fact that his Mom had let him build that image for so long. Let him hang all of his hopes on a hero when all that left him with was lies.

He slid into the kitchen and sat up to the table, glancing around at the rustic décor. For some reason the house had always had a country-boy look to it. "Mom, what was Dad like?" Dammit, well it wasn't supposed to come out like that. He was damn sure he didn't want to go into this, it was too early. But he'd put his foot in it now so there was no backing out.

"Erm, well honey... He was..." She held her smile as she laid a plate of waffles down in front of her son.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean... You don't have to answer that." _Please do. _Or not, he didn't know what he wanted anymore.

"No, you should know." She sat down in the chair opposite and tilted her head down towards the table. _No backing out._ "Well I guess the first thing you should know was that he loved hunting. Sometimes he'd leave for a couple of days and I'd get worried but it was always worth it to see him again when he got home."

"Is that why there are guns and loads of camping gear in the garage?"

"Yes and no. Some of them are mine." Mary chuckled at the confused look on Dean's face. "I wasn't much of a lady back in the day. I liked the outdoors, but I gave up that life when I started to get responsibilities."

"What music was he into?"

"I have a box downstairs of all his cassette tapes and records. Have you finished your waffles?" She looked down at the polished plate in front of her as Dean nodded his head excitedly.

"Come on then."

* * *

"Well he hasn't let me down. Look at all this; Aerosmith, The Who, The Beatles-"

"Oo, that's mine." Mary said as she grabbed it from the bag and smiled like she had just found the Holy Grail. Dean danced around her pillaging through boxes, each time popping up with a different part of his father's life.

Whilst looking through one of them he came across a coat lying buried beneath cassette tapes. "Mom, what's this?" He pulled out the deep, brown overcoat and held it up to his mother.

"That was your father's favourite coat. He took it everywhere with him." She stumbled on her words and gulped down the lump in her throat. "Can I?" She held out her hand for Dean to pass it over.

"Sure." Dean handed it to her and watched in wonder as she stroked her thumbs over the leather and held it close.

All of a sudden he saw her face change and tears well up inside her eyes. She dropped the coat onto the floor and walked quickly out of the room, mumbling 'I'm sorry' through mangled tears.

Dean was stuck to the spot, why had he been so stupid? He couldn't just expect his mother to be fine when there was clearly so many memories hiding away down here. He moved into action and after tucking the coat away neatly where he had first found it, he scuttled back into the house to find his Mom.

He found her a few moments later, curled up on the bed in the spare room. "Mom." He whispered, not wanting to startle her.

"Hey Dean." She faked a smile, "I'm fine, don't worry about me. There's just a lot of memories that I haven't thought about in years."

"I'm sorry." He sat on the bed next to his mother and wrapped his arms around her. "How come you're in the spare room?"

"This wasn't the spare room once. Before the accident it was mine and your Dad's room. I come here sometimes, just to relax. But I could never bring myself to sleep here, not without him, it wasn't right."

"Is that what you reckon it was- an accident?"

Mary jumped into life and Dean nearly jumped out of his skin, "I shouldn't be laying all this on you, it's not fair on you. I'm fine, honestly."

"Mom-" Dean felt confused as to what he had said, maybe talking about his death wasn't a good idea. He got off the bed and followed her out of the room, making sure to close the door behind him. He didn't know why that was of significance, it just was.


	6. Welcome To High School

_**A/N: I'm sorry the updates have been slow, I'm trying to add a good back story into this so that it has a bit more depth. I'm sort of making each chapter up as I go along. I don't have a clue what's going to happen in this Fic so brace yourselves.**_

* * *

Dean sat cross-legged on the cold floor of the basement, sifting through the boxes that his Mom had showed him earlier. His father's coat sat proudly beside him and he had filled a separate box with all the vinyl's he wanted. He was hoping that he would eventually find a record player but the search wasn't looking good for that; he made a mental note to ask his Mom later.

The next box along was withered and torn at the edges and was slightly smaller than the rest. He opened the top up and wafted away the dust that attacked him in swarms. Peering inside the box- on first inspection- appeared empty; but lying alone at the very bottom was some sort of book that looked just as worn as the box it was kept in. Dean cautiously lowered his hand down to pick up the book, which he could see was a journal by its leather bindings and old notes sticking out from the pages. Engraved into the bottom right-hand corner were the letters 'JW'- _John Winchester. _His mind swirled out of control, he wasn't ready for this. He pinched the bridge of his nose, "Son of a bitch." His head thumped hard like what was left of his mangled brain was trying to escape through his eye sockets. He centred his thoughts and sat back on his heels, the pictures in front of his eyes jumping into mini-scenes.

He put the journal back into the box and shut the lid firmly, almost breaking the damn thing, before opening it once more to shove the rest of his dad's things into it. He stood up too fast and saw black dots flash before his eyes before stacking the rest of the boxes neatly into the corner.

He needed food. He hadn't eaten since this morning and his stomach yearned for anything substantial.

"Mom, what's for tea?" He asked impatiently as he walked into the kitchen. On the table, peanut-butter jelly sandwiches were laid out on the table and his mother was lying on the couch with her back towards him. He grabbed the plate before noticing that the crusts were still intact and sighing whilst he cut them off himself. "Mom." He knocked the kitchen chair with his bare foot and yelped as his toenail throbbed with pain. Hobbling slowly round he noticed that his mother was asleep, he turned off the television and set the food down on the coffee table. It was hard to depart with it for even a moment but he figured that the chivalrous thing to do was to at least pull the blanket up over her shoulders and peck her forehead. Unfortunately, he ended up knocking his toe again, this time on the leg of the coffee table, and managed to trip up onto his unsuspecting mother.

Mary awoke with a start, her eyes as wide as the moon is full and as blue as the ocean is deep. Dean pushed himself off her and stood up with an innocent look plastered on his face; he grabbed a bite of his sandwich and spat out a, "Sorry."

"Could you be anymore clumsy?" She glanced at the bread with the badly cut edges, "And what have I told you about leaving your crusts. Dean, you're not a child anymore!" Her voice rose rapidly and Dean cowered backwards. He has heard his mother shout before and it had always made him feel so vulnerable- like a sheep among lions. Even though she stood a good half-a-foot smaller, it still seemed as though he were just a kid, with his Mom towering over him in a feat of anger.

She gave a sigh, "Just go upstairs, please." He nodded and made his way to the stairs. "I love you." She added as he disappeared behind the wall.

"I love you too, Mom." Dean mumbled.

* * *

Castiel's first day at his new school hadn't been that bad so far. No-one had said a bad-word to him, but then again, no-one had said _anything_ to him. He hoped that this might be the school that Anna and Gabriel went to, but even then they were a few years above him. So later that night he decided he would have to make friends- somehow.

In History the next day he arrived late and sat next to the least daunting person he could find, which happened to be fair-haired, metrosexual looking boy who had sat behind him in his English class. He smiled and formed a coherent sentence in his head before approving it and whispering, "Hello, my name is Castiel."

The boy smiled warmly, "Balthazar. You new?" Castiel nodded and turned his attention to the teacher, who had started to speak about Women's Propaganda in the 1900's.

When the class ended, Castiel finally swivelled back to an attention-starved Balthazar and spoke confidently, "Can I maybe sit with you at lunch? I don't think eating alone is socially acceptable nowadays."

"When was eating alone ever socially acceptable? And sure, look out for me in the dinner hall." The boy collected together his books and joined the sea of pupils exiting through the doorway.

Castiel's second and third lesson went by quicker than he had expected seen as how he had developed the strategy known as: not listening. He found it to be a completely plausible idea. By the time lunch had arrived, Castiel had managed to mentally prepare small talk and hopefully eradicate awkwardness. He was excited to meet a few more new people- he was a pro at this. Why had he never tried it before?

As he entered the hall, the rush of people overwhelmed him for a few moments. His previous school paled in comparison to this.

Searching the table he cast his eye on one in particular. Even from a distance he could see the familiar faces of his mid-term vacation traumas. Dean sat with his arm proudly around his cousin Anna, Bobby had his face stuffed with food and there were a few others he could remember from the B&B. He couldn't see Gabriel anywhere. Instead he looked for his History acquaintance Balthazar, which he did find, along with several other people. Scanning closer as he entered the dinner line, he noticed that Gabriel was sat with them, laughing about something, but no-one else seemed to find it funny. He always thought that Gabe was bad at telling jokes.

Once he had collected his stodgy pasta and crumpled orange juice carton, he headed for Balthazar's table only to find that they had vanished. He sighed; maybe he had taken too long to get his dinner. Luckily, Anna's table was still full and he figured she wouldn't mind him sitting with them, after all he was family.

As he approached Dean flicked his head up towards Castiel and smiled, "How's my favourite weirdo? You never said you were headed for the city." He looked sternly at another member on the table who was snickering, "Move." The small-ish guy happily obliged and offered his seat to the baffled Castiel, who sat gingerly.

"My father said we should just up and leave so…" He nodded his head awkwardly and stared down at his plate.

Anna chirped up and smiled at Castiel, "Well good, it's nice to see you. I've got to go- detention."

"Mrs Battleaxe again?" Dean unravelled his arm from Anna's shoulder and leaned forward in his seat.

"No shit." She got up from her seat next to Dean and headed for the door. Dean took a sip of his orange juice and looked at Cas, "You like football?"

"I've never really played." Once he'd finished eating, he sat back on his chair and waited for Dean to start up another conversation. Unfortunately, seconds turned into minutes and Castiel was still sat there waiting. But the silence was never really awkward.

Dean sighed, "Who'd you reckon is the fittest girl in this hall?" Castiel sat there stunned until Dean realised that he wasn't going to get a reply. "Okay, touchy subject. Err, you made any friends?"

He fiddled with his fork nervously as he answered, "Well I thought I had; there is a boy in my History class who said I could sit with him at lunch. Do you think he was just joking?" He looked up towards Dean, his eyes begging to be answered.

Dean couldn't lie, "Maybe, maybe not. Welcome to High School."


End file.
